Tony Blair has called on the Labour Party to establish its policy direction before selecting a new leader, while also taking issue with Andy Burnham's assertion that government policies over the past four decades have failed voters.
Blair's Interview on Today Programme
Speaking on the BBC's Today programme, the former prime minister was asked what advice he would give to Labour members faced with choosing between Andy Burnham and Wes Streeting. Blair responded: "My advice is choose your direction first and make sure that before you have any leadership change, you make all the candidates set out in detail their policy, what the Government’s got right, what it’s got wrong, what we should do differently."
Criticism of Burnham's '40 Years of Failure' Speech
While Blair offered general praise for Burnham, he also criticised the Greater Manchester mayor's recent speech, in which Burnham argued that government policies over the past 40 years have let voters down. Blair said: "I hope Andy wins Makerfield, I think he’s a great guy, I want to see him in parliament. But you know, when he does this thing about 40 years of wasted … what, nothing good happened in that period of Thatcher with the business community, or New Labour? I don’t think he really means that."
Call for Clarity on Policy Stance
Blair emphasised the need for candidates to clearly state their positions, drawing on his experience with the transition from Jeremy Corbyn's leadership. He said: "If you’re going to change leader, you’ve really got to force people to say where they stand, because otherwise you’ll be in what I think was always a problem for Keir – and I’ll be very honest about this, and I like him and I wish him well – but when we switched from that Corbyn agenda, there wasn’t enough explanation. Not as to why Corbyn was an election loser, that was pretty obvious, but why the whole agenda was wrong. You have to explain to people why it’s wrong if you want to lead the party in the future in a coherent way."
